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Geyer is wrong in comparison of immigrants

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Georgie Anne Geyer, who often writes insightful op-ed columns, has written one based on a
version of immigration history so off-base that it must be corrected (“Today’s immigrant influx not
like that of the past,” Wednesday).

Geyer claimed past immigration was different, because earlier immigrants shared American values
and came legally. The last is true, and we should do what is necessary to keep present immigration
legal. But the notion that past waves of immigrants somehow accepted American values while present
ones don’t is laughable.

Some immigrants came from Britain and shared our Anglo-American culture and language. That was
not true of the waves of Irish, German, and Chinese immigrants of the mid-19th century, and of the
Italians, Portuguese, Greeks and Jews who came in the period from the 1890s to 1950s that she
stresses. Few of these immigrants shared American's Protestant British heritage.

Even the mostly poverty-stricken Irish, who did speak English, had been denied education and a
voice in government. They hated England and everything about it.

Most of all, people born in the United States were just as sure these immigrants were alien in
beliefs, customs and language as Geyer is sure that present immigrants are, which is why we passed
laws limiting immigration after the 1890s in the first place.

What Geyer really seems to mean is that the old immigration came mostly from Europe, while the
new immigration comes from Latin America. But in fact all these immigrants, then and now, have been
similar.

They come here to improve their lives and those of their children. Their work ethic and ambition
enable them to contribute to and benefit from American life. As they do, they learn and become
committed to American values. Any discussion of immigration should be based on historical reality,
not fiction.